1. Field of the Invention
This invention concerns an injector administering subcutaneous injections without a needle and with one-shot cap and concerns also the one-shot caps for subcutaneous injections as set forth in the main claim.
The one-shot cap according to this invention possesses the feature of not being capable of being re-used, while the relative injector cannot be used with an already used one-shot cap or without a one-shot cap, thus preventing any possibility of one patient communicating a disease to another.
The one-shot cap according to this invention can be fitted advantageously to injectors of any known type administering subcutaneous injections without a needle by adapting the head of such injectors suitably.
2. Description of Related Art
The state of the art includes injectors which administer subcutaneous injections and enable the medicament to pass through the skin and to spread in the underlying zone without the part of the body in question being perforated, as happens instead with injections made with traditional syringes.
Injectors administering subcutaneous injections are known to which the one-shot cap according to this invention can be applied advantageously.
With these injectors the medicament is injected without perforating the skin since the medicament itself is expelled at a high pressure from the injector through an aperture of a very small diameter and thus penetrates into the subcutaneous portion in question.
This injector therefore performs the same functions as a normal syringe used for subcutaneous injections but provides the advantage that the injection causes no pain since it is carried out without puncturing the portion of the body in question.
This entails a great advantage, above all for children and for those persons who have of necessity to be often injected for reasons of health.
IT-1.166.326 discloses an injector to administer subcutaneous injections without a needle, whereby the medicament held in an appropriate chamber is expelled through an aperture of a very small diameter.
The medicament is expelled by the action of a piston actuated by previously compressed spring means cooperating with a safety catch system, the whole being adjustable as desired.
The injector disclosed in the above document and administering subcutaneous injections without a needle comprises in reciprocal cooperation and coordination an injection head including a medicament containing chamber in which a small piston able to slide within the chamber cooperates, an aperture for discharge of the medicament, a valve enabling the medicament to pass from phials to the containing chamber with simultaneous selection of the phials themselves and from the containing chamber to the discharge aperture, means to compress spring means which expel the medicament, a cocking and trigger means to actuate the previously compressed spring means, means to measure the quantity of medicament charged, means to limit the charging, safety means, etc.
IT-1.189.884, for which an application for a European patent was published under No.0250022 and a U.S. Pat. No. was granted under No. 4,850,967, discloses other forms of embodiment of an injector to administer subcutaneous injections without a needle, these forms containing further improvements unimportant for the purposes of the present invention and being such that the one-shot cap according to the present invention can be applied advantageously to them.
All the above injectors to administer subcutaneous injections without a needle and other known like or related injectors entail the shortcoming that, when they are used to inject the same medicament, for instance a vaccine, into a plurality of persons, the head of the injector has to be dismantled and replaced on each occasion so that it can be sterilized to prevent any infections.
In fact, even if there is no physical penetration into the skin by any part of these injectors administering subcutaneous injections without a needle, the portion of the injector coming into contact with the skin should be sterilized before each injection for reasons of hygiene too.
The present applicants are not aware of one-shot caps which can be fitted to injectors administering subcutaneous injections without a needle according to this invention, nor are they aware of injectors of the above cited type which cannot perform the injection without having a one-shot cap that is intact.